What a waste. This game "plays" like an 8-hour shift at a cubicle job. Not fun at all.
Gamespot does not address the question, "is this game fun?" Is this game fun? No. It is so not fun that playing it feels more like work and I could find no reason to ever play this game again.
Look at the player reviews and you will find that everyone hates this game; and for good reason, Master of Orion II was amazing. I still have it on my computer to this day, and I would still enjoy it if I played a game on a lazy afternoon. This game, however, is plain bad.
If Microprose was trying to avoid the tedious micromanagement required in the end-game of the turn-based strategy games--then from Gamespot's view--they succeeded. But just because turns go quickly, even in end-game, does not mean that this game is a breeze. And what is worse, is that the game just isn't fun. I do not want to invest the time to learn how to handle the interface for a game that seems to have such limited entertainment potential in the first place. I would rather play a game that is fun to begin with that has enough depth to continue being fun later on.
This game is not worth buying. Go find your old copy of MOO2 and install that again. Or better yet, go download Master of Magic from an abandonware site and install that.